


The Tiger That Came To Coffee

by rain_sleet_snow



Series: Animal Instinct [5]
Category: Primeval
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-08
Updated: 2015-02-08
Packaged: 2018-03-11 05:35:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3316106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rain_sleet_snow/pseuds/rain_sleet_snow
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There’s a first time for everything. Including a tiger in the kitchen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tiger That Came To Coffee

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kez](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kez/gifts).



> I wrote this in a fandomstocking for Kez, based off her Animal Instinct AU.

            Lester considered it a great personal inconvenience that his secretary was ill. Naturally, she couldn’t fulfil her duties while in the shape of an owl, and Lester conceded that the transition had been somewhat involuntary. Moreover, the ill-effects thereof were sufficient that she really ought to spend the rest of the day in bed with a soothing, inoffensive book. She had not planned a panic attack and resultant transition into owl form solely to irritate him and deprive him of his coffee; she was, though far from soft-hearted, a humane woman.

 

            Even when owl-shaped.

 

            Lester made his way down to the rec room, absent-mindedly acknowledged the greetings of the staff he saw on the way, and pushed the door open. He wondered if there would be a mug that wasn’t stained or chipped. He also wondered, as soon as he got the door to the small kitchen open, why there was a tiger in the kitchen.

 

            “Good afternoon,” Lester said to the tiger, preparing to back away slowly if necessary.

 

            The tiger broke its fixed stare at the kettle and coffee-tin to turn its great head towards him and attempt a salute with one dinner-plate-sized paw. A member of the military contingent, then. Lester ran through the possibilities in his head, but a soldier with an alternate tiger form didn’t spring to mind.

 

            “If you’ll excuse me, I would like to make a cup of coffee.”

 

            The tiger looked almost hopeful.

 

            “You’re between me and the kettle,” Lester elaborated.

 

            The tiger got out of the way, and then stared at him. Lester did his best to rise above this, and went through the motions of making a cup of coffee. The tiger watched him so hopefully throughout that he made some extra and poured it into a bowl, then set it on the floor. The tiger looked pleased.

 

            “That cannot be good for you,” Lester informed it. “Not in your present form. I don’t believe you’re going to drink it.”

 

            The tiger blinked its amber eyes slowly and deliberately, shrugged massive shoulders, and then crouched on its haunches to lick delicately at the coffee with its pink tongue.

 

            Lester watched, fascinated, and then allowed himself a small expression of surprise as the tiger spiralled upwards and became Captain Becker, large as life in every direction, and watching Lester with a peculiarly insolent expression on his face. He was probably not as bad as he had been as a tiger, but his primate’s face was more expressive.

 

            “It must be the caffeine,” Lester said, striving to attain a tone of mild interest. “Does it promote your transformation?” He let his eyes lower slightly, his eyebrows float upwards, and his tone gain in superciliousness. “And may I offer you a tea-towel?”

 


End file.
